Additive Manufacturing Process, often referred to as three-dimensional printing, is a process of producing three-dimensional products from three-dimensional model data, such as a digital representation. In Additive Manufacturing Process a product is often created by joining materials layer by layer until the entire product is created. Each layer can be seen as thinly sliced horizontal cross-section of the eventual product. In some cases, the Additive Manufacturing Process may utilize a variety of different materials to produce a product. Each layer is fused by adding material in desired locations.
The three-dimensional products produced in Additive Manufacturing Process can be of almost any shape or geometry, and may be produced in an Additive Manufacturing Apparatus from a three-dimensional model or other electronic data source, such as a three-dimensional printer. The Additive Manufacturing Process may be used to create a new object, to copy an existing object, or the like.
The Additive Manufacturing Process starts with making a virtual design of the product that is to be printed. In some cases, the virtual design is provided in a Computer Aided Design (CAD) file using a three-dimensional modeling program (for the creation of a new object) or with the use of a three-dimensional scanner (to copy an existing object). This scanner makes a three-dimensional digital copy, which may be retained, in a three-dimensional modeling format.
To prepare the digital file created in a three-dimensional modeling program for printing, software may slice the final model into hundreds or thousands of horizontal layers. When this prepared file is uploaded in the three-dimensional printer, the printer creates the object layer by layer. The three-dimensional printer reads every slice (or two-dimensional image) and proceeds to create the object blending each layer together, preferably with no sign of the layering visible, resulting in one three-dimensional object.
The Additive Manufacturing Process may involve different kinds of technologies to create the product, such as melting or softening material to produce the layers, Selective laser sintering (SLS), fused deposition modeling (FDM), or the like.
Additive Manufacturing or three-dimensional printing is moving from the realm of engineers and architects into the hands of hobbyists. It is only a matter of time before we have three-dimensional printers at home, or have access to one the same way we now get photographs printed.